The Second Annual The Swedish Affair

The second annual The Swedish Affair took place at the amazing Rockstar Mansion in the Hollywood Hills on June 9th and 10th.  The Swedish Affair celebrates Swedish innovations and creativity by showcasing Swedish companies within film, advertisement, games, food, fashion and design.  For two full days, top executives, CEOs and decision makers were invited to get a chance to see which Swedish companies are in the forefront within these fields.  The Swedes delivered and the Americans were more than pleased! The SACC-LA office has already received great response from internal company e-mails about the success to talking about SACC-LA to their colleagues.

Peter Stormare presenting Rosvo Rockers

Over 800 people attended for two days enjoying sponsored signature drinks from Karlsson’s Vodka and beer from Pistonhead, Scandinavian food from Stureplansgruppen. In between networking and listening to panel discussions the guests were entertained with live music from Swedish artists Yana Mangi, Anni Kannika (presented by Musicians Institute) and Beldina with her amazing voice. On Sunday, Peter Stormare introduced the rockabilly band Rosvo Rockers and the crowd loved them.

Throughout the two event days, guests listened to keynotes from none other than the founding father of video games, Nolan Bushnell. He spoke about how kids can be taught through games, while making the audience laugh when he explained why he had eight kids, “so many dumb people have kids and I though I should have some smart ones.”

Nolan Bushnell – Founder of Atari and Technology Pioneer

Dr. Ewa Björling, Swedish Minister of Trade had a Q&A and specifically thanked The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles for all their work with The Swedish Affär. Anna Serner, CEO of Swedish Film Institute, and Jesper Andréasson, Director Consumer Insights & Business Development at Volvo Cars US also engaged us in their keynotes.  Other showcases and performances included BoostHbg’s Change Through Story with case study: Valkyria and Gestrument, an intuitive app where you can compose music in any genre with just the swipe of your fingers.  Some of the exhibitors included ACNE, DICE, Ubisoft Massive, Avalanche, Plotagon, Phosworks, Volvo Cars, Isabel Adrian, Love Powerup, ITM Mobile, St. Barths Home, iGoMoon and many more!

Dr. Ewa Björling – Swedish Minister for Trade

Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz – General Manager Volvo Monitoring & Concept Center, US 

There were activities all around the house and many exhibitors showed their showreels down in the screening room. California Lutheran University and Maverick Angels also held a workshop in the screening room about their new Scandinavian Accelerator Program.  Dolph Lundgren’s spontaneous speech about how he started out as a chemical engineer and made his way into acting was another lovely surprise that made all guests gather around the pool and stage.

Gudrun Giddings – President SACC-LA, Morten Larssen – SVP Sales and Marketing at Funcom, Min Kim – Chief Executive North America for Nexon

Enjoy more pictures on the SACC-LA Facebook page.